Posted on 05/04/2008 6:57:45 PM PDT by DesScorp
IRON MAN, Batman, Big Angry Green Man — to judge from the new popcorn season it seems as if Hollywood has realized that the best way to deal with its female troubles is to not have any, women, that is.
Not that it hasn’t tried to make nice with the leading ladies, in films like “The Invasion” (with Nicole Kidman) and “The Brave One” (Jodie Foster). Yet, after those Warner Brothers titles fizzled, the online chatter was that the studio’s president for production, Jeff Robinov, had vowed it would no longer make movies with female leads. A studio representative denied he made the comments. And, frankly, it is hard to believe that anyone in a position of Hollywood power would be so stupid as to actually say what many in that town think: Women can’t direct. Women can’t open movies. Women are a niche.
Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become. That’s as true for the dumbest and smartest of comedies as for the most critically revered dramas, from “No Country for Old Men” (but especially for women) to “There Will Be Blood” (but no women). Welcome to the new, post-female American cinema.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Manhola Dargis Ping.
<<<Actually, I thought the commercials were kinda cute when they first started coming out because that type of man is so alien in my world. I don’t know any clueless men. Now, I just get pissed.<<<
My husband is a really smart guy too, but why can’t he figure out the washing machine? ;)
Manhola Dargis
Did you ever think these movies, Iron Man, Batman, Spiderman, etc appeal to GUYS instead of your pseudo man-like women?
Women want comfortable shoes and movies that make them cry. Why do you think the Resident Evil series of movies hasn't done as well?
It's because THIS appeals to us GUYS.
Related to Chick-fil-A? Is that an antonym?
Her parents were hoping for another boy, actually...
(We won’t tell you what her brother’s name is, though ;)
Niche at Night
This whiney female isn’t interested in that, she wants a huge budget blockbuster with a female lead.
She goes on and on about no women, but leaves out a currently released movie that has been out for 5 weeks, and is clearly female centered. It cost $37 Mil to produce and has grossed nearly $60 Mil in 5 weeks. Not blockbuster, but hardly a failure by any stretch.
And with the 2 primary characters being female, one being a female child.. its hard to argue that this film is not a femal led film.
“Nim’s Island.” Of course this would not meet the narative whining requirement she wants, so it will be ignored.
There are pleanty of women led movies out, year after year, no they aren’t all blockbusters, and no, the public generally doesn’t buy women playing the action star.. which I think is more of her gripe than anything.
My female friends and I went to see Iron Man, and we’re also excited to see Indiana Jones and Dark Knight (Christian Bale AND Heath Ledger. In the same movie. *sigh*) and the X-Files movie and Prince Caspian.... We aren’t the chick-flick type, but we base our movie preferences on three things: the number of explosions, the number of pretty guys, and if it’s based off something we grew up on. The thing isn’t so much that women don’t go to see ‘woman’ movies, but that women go to see ‘man’ movies and men don’t go to see ‘woman’ movies.
This article is absurd. It basically makes the case that there are no women driven movies in Hollywood except the five or six “chick flicks” that she names like “Sex in the City” and the multiple romantic comedies that she names but doesn’t consider woman-driven because [gasp!] they have a male co-star! But god forbid amongst all the estrogen there be an “Iron Man”.
Hey, that’s the deal in any socialist egalitarian system.
You not only have to force production of stuff that people don’t want, you have to force consumption of same.
On the other side, you have to force people to provide goods and services at compensation levels far below what those goods & services would be at market prices, creating not only higher demand, but lower supplies - ie, shortages.
Is that the same chick that was in the Fifth Element with Bruce Willis?
Probably not, she’d be a lot older.
It looks like her though.
Exactamundo.
Well most of them do spend time on the Director’s Couch??
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
The Indiana Jones movies had love interests who shared screentime with Indy.
What kind of “summer escape film” do they expect to spout the Feminist Playbook for 2 hours? Certainly the Charlie’s Angels films were NOT feminist tracts.
And WHAT is the modern truth of the Feminist movement when Gloria Steinim and NOW stand beside Bill Clinton and absolve him of any “harm” from his rapes and sexual harassment in the workplace? NOW was a FRAUD.
I think she was basically complaining that there weren’t more Steel Magnolias or Jodie Foster movies out there... which is a good thing, IMHO.
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